New York U. Says It Will Open a ‘Comprehensive Liberal-Arts Campus’ in Abu Dhabi

New York University announced on Friday that it will open a campus in Abu Dhabi, in the United Arab Emirates, joining a swarm of American universities hoping to capitalize on Persian Gulf money by opening branches in the oil-rich region. NYU’s new project, which the university says will create “the first comprehensive liberal-arts campus abroad developed by a major U.S. research university,” seems to be the most ambitious project to date in the region.

NYU, whose network of global campuses was missing a Middle East outpost, spoke with multiple countries in the region before being won over by Abu Dhabi’s expansive vision for its future. “We found in Abu Dhabi a commitment to the notion that the world that is emerging is going to have eight or ten idea capitals in it, driven at their core by research universities, these places where ideas are created,” said NYU’s president, John E. Sexton. “The single thing to understand is that this is not a business investment for Abu Dhabi. This is a deep investment in creating an idea capital … a magnet for the whole region and the whole world, with students from India or Morocco or from Saudi Arabia.”

NYU was also no doubt attracted by the emirate’s offer to pay the entire cost of building and operating the new campus, following the model of Qatar’s Education City (The Chronicle, October 4). Though no dollar amount has been set as part of the deal, Abu Dhabi has “committed to providing all it takes to build an A-plus university,” said Mariet Westermann, whom NYU has appointed as vice chancellor for the Abu Dhabi project. The new campus is set to include extensive classroom space, library and information-technology facilities, laboratories, academic buildings, dormitories, faculty and residential housing, student services, and athletic and performing-arts facilities.

“Our mandate is to build excellence,” Mr. Sexton said. “We will go through an annual budgeting process, but I think the mandate is to do what it takes to build a great university. The Crown Prince is committed to helping NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU in Washington Square to become one of the world’s 10 great universities by 2020.”

Abu Dhabi will also provide money to specific departments and programs on NYU’s campus in Manhattan in exchange for having professors rotate to the Abu Dhabi campus. “We want our faculty to see the Abu Dhabi campus as their own,” Mr. Sexton said. “The idea is to create fluidity.”

The new campus, slated to open in 2010, will offer a broad range of English-language courses comparable to those of major US research universities—unlike existing American programs in the region, which tend to focus on particular subjects or disciplines. Men and women will study in the same classes. “We are very committed to training students in a truly dynamic and international environment,” said Ms. Westermann.

The NYU Abu Dhabi campus will offer the same degrees that are offered in New York, with a curriculum developed by the university’s New York-based faculty. The university hopes eventually to enroll more than 2,000 undergraduates and several hundred graduate students on the new campus. Its students will be chosen by NYU’s Office of Admissions, relying on the same standards used for the New York campus. NYU Abu Dhabi students will be offered the opportunity to spend a semester in New York and a semester at one of the university’s 12 other outposts around the world, in such places as China, Ghana, and England.